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Show 122 REPORT OF THE OOMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. At this point I fear I further lost caste by letting my risibles get the better. if my dignity. My visitors regarded my laughter with some astonishment and put the question again. I assured the chief that he would learn soon enough who I was and whether I was telling him the truth; that meanwhile it would be safe for him to accept my statement so far as to avoid any needless friction with the Hostiles, but to conduct himself with such forbearance as would comport with his position of chief; and that when I returned to Washington I would consider the situation very carefully and do whatever it seemed to demand for the best interest of all the Indians concerned. He wished to know whether I was not going to punish the Hostiles in some way. I answered that resistance to the reasonable require-ments of tlie Government would always call for discipline, but that this would be administered for specific acts, and not out of any malig-nant spirit toward the Hostiles, for whom the Government had no hatred, but only pity for their ignorance and folly.. He repeated his reference to the alleged Government plan for driving out the Hos-tiles and dividing their estate amongthe Friendlies, adding this time . that the Hostiles had grown steadily more aggressive and increased in - . numbers because of the Government's inaction, and that unless I took some steps to punish the Hostiles and show my appreciation for the Friendlies there would presently be no Friendlies left. . I told him that that remark indicated a rather poor basis for the friendliness of his faction; that among white people a friend was one we loved and who loved us, without any hope of reward on either side; and that we always tried to be scrupulously just even to our enemies and kind to the helpless. By way of illustration of the white atti-tude, I told him about the Black Mountain Navahos who had been sent. to. prison for inciting riot, and about how I had gone into their .country and called their people together and waged the well-behaved to avoid doing anything to injure the innocent families of the wn-victs, but to try to be as merciful as possible to these unfortunates, because they. were not accountable for the wrong-doing of the men the Government had been obliged to punish. This view of the sub-ject did not seem to interest the chief overmuch ; his heart was set on the question of how to get rid of the Hostiles, and he soon took his leave with a rather discouraged air. Before I left the neighborhood, and after considerable discussion of the situation with the most intelligent white persons thereabout, I reached the conclusion that, much as such a resort is always to be de-plored, I should have nothing left for me this season but to make a demonstration with troops which would convince the ring-leaders of the Hostile faction that they wuld gain nothing by further hostility. But a crisis was reached prematurely. On the 7th of September, |